title: Long-term cognitive impairment after critical illness.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Survivors of critical illness often have a prolonged and disabling form of cognitive impairment that remains inadequately characterized.
  
  
  METHODS
  We enrolled adults with respiratory failure or shock in the medical or surgical intensive care unit (ICU), evaluated them for in-hospital delirium, and assessed global cognition and executive function 3 and 12 months after discharge with the use of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (population age-adjusted mean [±SD] score, 100±15, with lower values indicating worse global cognition) and the Trail Making Test, Part B (population age-, sex-, and education-adjusted mean score, 50±10, with lower scores indicating worse executive function). Associations of the duration of delirium and the use of sedative or analgesic agents with the outcomes were assessed with the use of linear regression, with adjustment for potential confounders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 821 patients enrolled, 6% had cognitive impairment at baseline, and delirium developed in 74% during the hospital stay. At 3 months, 40% of the patients had global cognition scores that were 1.5 SD below the population means (similar to scores for patients with moderate traumatic brain injury), and 26% had scores 2 SD below the population means (similar to scores for patients with mild Alzheimer's disease). Deficits occurred in both older and younger patients and persisted, with 34% and 24% of all patients with assessments at 12 months that were similar to scores for patients with moderate traumatic brain injury and scores for patients with mild Alzheimer's disease, respectively. A longer duration of delirium was independently associated with worse global cognition at 3 and 12 months (P=0.001 and P=0.04, respectively) and worse executive function at 3 and 12 months (P=0.004 and P=0.007, respectively). Use of sedative or analgesic medications was not consistently associated with cognitive impairment at 3 and 12 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients in medical and surgical ICUs are at high risk for long-term cognitive impairment. A longer duration of delirium in the hospital was associated with worse global cognition and executive function scores at 3 and 12 months. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and others; BRAIN-ICU ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00392795.).
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Critical Care, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, USA. pratik.pandharipande@vanderbilt.edu
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Pandharipande
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Girard
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morandi
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: B T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Pun
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Brummel
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Vasilevskis
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Shintani
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Moons
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Geevarghese
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Canonico
authors.forename: R O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Hopkins
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Bernard
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Dittus
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Ely
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000523:psychology*; D003693:Delirium / Q000150:complications; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000150:complications*; D012769:Shock / Q000150:complications*